We do not have /dev at this stage of the bootstrap, including /dev/tty. For some reason, bash has a fixation on /dev/tty, even though we are not interactive. Removing this check entirely fixes this issue. diff --color -ru shell.c --- shell.c 2002-07-02 01:27:11.000000000 +1000 +++ shell.c 2021-01-16 11:23:36.407287955 +1100 @@ -342,8 +342,6 @@ # endif #endif - check_dev_tty (); - #ifdef __CYGWIN__ _cygwin32_check_tmp ();